Template talk:Timeline
This is something that I've been holding back on for awhile now. And considering that Metzen stated that Blizzard was working on a timeline, it seemed to be a wise decision. However, with the changes to the character template allowing birthdates and death dates, a precedent has been established. And I think it would be far easier if that precedent was carried out now rather than later. The thing about a timeline now is that it allows us to keep track of dates with links to the relevant articles, said timeline being based on actual dates and those established by simple math. If a timeline is added later however, and there are some divergences from current belief, then we have to track down individual articles. With a current timeline, dates can be moved, and we know which articles to edit accordingly. I've settled on certain dates and what to include and what not to. But the term "four years after the Brood War" and "x years before StarCraft" is getting repetitive and clunky. There's a precedent for absolute dates and I think it would be easier for all of us if it were taken now rather than later. Still, that's just me. I won't jump the gun...yet.--Hawki 12:39, 3 June 2008 (UTC) The terms are annoying, but Blizzard could be changing the dates, which is why I worry a bit about applying dates to important events, especially those that didn't happen in the game. (For an example, I think Shadow Hunters implied that StarCraft II is taking place more than four years after Blizzard; eg four years and some months, based on the info surrounding Valerian's birthday "present"). Kimera 757 (talk) 22:49, 3 June 2008 (UTC) Didn't he "recieve" Starke in the year before Shadow Hunters? Anyway, it's stated at various points that StarCraft takes place "four years after the Brood War." And as far as relative timelines go, it appears to be kept in sync with various dates (eg. that Raynor served in the Guild Wars "nearly twenty years ago." This matches the timeline. of 2505-20=2485 (start of Guild Wars.) Add a few years and we have Raynor serving right in the thick of it. Blizzard could change the timeline, but so far, appears to be set on keeping to the one established originally.--Hawki 23:04, 3 June 2008 (UTC) IIRC he is past 22 now, and received Starke on his 21st birthday. I vaguely recall an age/date calculation for four years. (Oh, never mind.) Raynor serving 20 years ago might not make much sense. That makes him too young (maybe) and, more importantly, in-game we're told the Guild Wars took place ten years before StarCraft I (which would be 14-16 years before StarCraft II, not 20). It's at the beginning of the game, right after the opening video: TERRAN CAMPAIGN: REBEL YELL In the decade since the end of the Guild Wars, the oppressive Terran Confederacy has stood unchallenged in its supremacy over colonial space. All of that changed four days ago when a large alien fleet emerged from warp-space and laid waste to the unsuspecting Confederate colony of Chau Sara. The Confederacy, fearing that the alien fleet's next target will be the colony of Mar Sara, has sent you to intervene. Acting as Magistrate, you are to safeguard the colonists and keep their state of panic from escalating any further. Kimera 757 (talk) 23:10, 3 June 2008 (UTC) The key word in the sentence is "nearly." Look, it doesn't matter. I'll lay off posting the timeline, but I also think it's best that without it, DOB and DOD be limited for characters, as it'll be hard to trace them if Blizzard makes significant changes.--Hawki 03:34, 4 June 2008 (UTC) Yep, me again. I'm not making a declaration of making year entries, but I've begun to wonder about whether we can actually expect to see a timeline. I know that mentions have been made of nailing down the timeline, but I don't recall a statement that a timeline was actually going to be posted. Another issue is that if there was to be such a posting, there's been no indication of it on StarCraft II's site, relative dating still being used. Information on activity outside a certain context has been given before, such as the Queen's actions on the Baneling page, but there's still nothing to indicate the presence of absolute dating. A third, external consideration is that the only timeline to have ever been posted by Blizzard was one for Warcraft. Not only was this relative, but made to give a sense of backstory for the many newcomers that would be playing WoW without having played the previous games. And with Diablo still relying on absolute dates and no word of an official timeline for that series either... I understand that a common phrase on wikis is to "be bold" when it comes to editing, as recent editing spates have shown. One of those was, against my earlier recomendation, was the insertion of absolute dates into articles based on the timeline I'd designed for insertion. Suffice to say, the situation's changed a bit...--Hawki 09:09, 31 July 2008 (UTC) Blizzard hasn't said there would be a timeline. However, one is expected, since Blizzard is paying much more attention to the lore, and (according to Chris Metzen in the StarCraft Legacy exclusive Q&A) is firming up the timeline. Unfortunately, a timeline will probably leave out a lot of things, focusing only on key events. We can change (make less firm) the birth/death dates. I'm still a bit confused where the month dates came from. Something to do with hidden information in the original StarCraft files? Kimera 757 (talk) 21:53, 31 July 2008 (UTC) Concerning the month dates: -The timeline of Mar Sara is taken from the fact that the game starts on December 12 and crossreferenced by the timeline provided in LC, which covers Mar Sara from start to finish. -The early Antiga Prime dates came from Omega, but I think they're crossreferenced from the cut mission content, which for instance established that Raynor teamed up with Tassadar on January 3rd. Nova establishes that the fighting on Antiga Prime lasted six months, but up to the events of Delta Squadron's arrival, the original dates can be kept. -January Nova dates are crossreferenced with events on Antiga Prime. A bit of an estimation, but it's based on how long it would take to get the fake report of Liberty out and then go from there. -We know Kelerchian's search took six months and including January, that takes us to June. We know the zerg invaded on the 18th, as when Kehl calls Molina, she says "I'll be back on the 21st" which Kehl realises ammounts to a waiting period of three days. We therefore know that the SOK left Antiga Prime on the 8th, as they were on Tarsonis ten days after planting the psi emitter according to Liberty's Crusade (the travel time is also backed up by the cut missions, only with different months. -After that, there's less crossreferencing, as the timeline goes by that established in QoB. It's a leap of faith assuming that six weeks waiting and two weeks travel equate to 56 and 14 days exactly, but I tried making the dates less general and it didn't work. Apart from that, QoB provides a good timeline of the events on Char, that when crossreferenced with the protoss missions, can provide a rough timeline to the zerg's invasion and the early protoss missions (which have blurbs such as "two days after the zerg invasion", the "following night, etc." After QoB things get hazy, but based on the zerg travel time, it's safe to assume that the protoss had a similar one. However, no exact dates have been provided, as they aren't needed to give a good timeline. -That the UED took Char on April 23 is based on Stukov's death date in the victory vid. According to the official version, Stukov died in the "final, valiant assault on Char" and hence would have moved his death date to said final assault. That the vid is made on May 5th is taken from the 5/5/822 date at the beginning. 822 can be disregarded, but 5th May seems reasonable, as by that time the UED had time to establish Project Black Flag's infrastructure (that's seen in the vid, and destroyed in the end zerg cinematic. The end dates for that are a bit of an estimate, but Episode VI seemed to move quite fast, as very little time seemed to progress between briefings, and the gap between the end of EV and the start of EVI is only as long as it takes for the psi disruptor's signal to reach Tarsonis. -We have an idea of the timeframe of Nova's training from the novel and we know that she assassinated Nadaner on her birthday and had been on Tyrador for a number of days that work back to December 29th (or whatever date I put). This is backed up by Nova reflecting on the standard "day" as opposed to Tyrador's. As for Blizzard's timeline, it may focus on key events, but if it's like the one they made for WoW, there should be some new info. The dates seem to be keeping the same relativity judging by the bios for Raynor and Char (for the record, having Raynor fighting in his teens isn't that strange-Sejak was fighting in the CMC at the age of 17) and as an absolute date is given for Tychus' birth, there isn't much to suggest that they're switching the date of StarCraft's beginning from 2499.--Hawki 23:43, 31 July 2008 (UTC)